


Implications

by apostated



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, F/M, Flirting, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-19
Packaged: 2018-08-16 01:08:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8080831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apostated/pseuds/apostated
Summary: Things aren't always what they seem.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hopeandfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeandfire/gifts).



> I was listening to Lady Gaga and my hand slipped.

He would be lying if he said he had not been watching her.It was an easy thing to do, with her being the only other customer seated in the shop, muttering angrily to herself as she precariously balanced a rather thick book on her crossed legs, marking the pages with a pen in one hand while she sipped her coffee with the other.The _vallaslin_ across her cheeks made her stand out as well; it was rare to see a Dalish elf in this part of Thedas, let alone, well…alone. A student, he guessed, by all of the muffled swearing drifting over to him at his own little table and the backpack flung haphazardly on the floor by her chair.He recognized the title at once as she shifted, the book’s cover revealed as she wriggled a bit, trying to find comfort in a chair that was not meant to be more than something to sit on.It was difficult to refrain from laughing.

 

“ _Fen’Harel’s_ bloody bollocks!” 

 

His ears caught the murmured curse, and he could not help but snort as he took a sip of his own coffee, peering over his newspaper with amusement rather than frustration.A simple _fenedhis_ was not descriptively vulgar enough to accurately express her frustrations, it seemed.“…Most egotistical bunch of shite I’ve ever…sodding…damnable bastard…Dread Wolf can just go and bloody take him.”

 

He cleared his throat gently, unable to erase a small smirk from his lips as her head snapped up in surprise; she had clearly been lost in her own little world.She grinned at him after a moment, completely unabashed.

 

“Sorry if I offended you.”She did not much sound sorry at all as she closed her book around her pen and settled it on the table before her.“It’s just…it’s a bit of a… _frustrating_ read.”

 

“I had not noticed; I had assumed from your expressive language that you found it rather enjoyable,” he jested, the corners of his mouth upturning into the slightest ghost of a smirk.

 

“Ah.Sarcasm.”She let out a soft ‘ha ha’ as she uncrossed her legs. “I’ve heard it’s the lowest form of wit.”

 

He chuckled, setting his paper coffee cup down on the table.“And yet some of the world’s foremost intellectuals employ it nonetheless.”

 

She studied him for a moment before she settled the book on the table and took another sip of her coffee.She made a face, looked at the cup with something that resembled disdain bordering on offended, and set it atop the book.

 

“Someone’s a bit full of himself.”

 

“I neither openly praised nor damned my own intellectual prowess,” he told her in such an even tone that she _did_ bark out a laugh at that.

 

“No,” she conceded with a bow of her head.“But it was _heavily_ implied.” _Clever_. 

 

“As you say,” he toasted her with his cup.She was interesting, this Dalish fish out of water.She did not look to be much younger than himself, though he was almost certain she was a university student.He knew, however, that appearances could be deceiving; she, at least, seemed to have no inkling of quite who _he_ was.She was pretty too, with jet black hair and eyes that were so brown as to be almost black themselves, eyes that now met his own grey ones with one eyebrow raised as if to ask him _Do you like what you see, there, stranger?_ He wondered for a moment what her face would look like without the _vallaslin_ marring her features.She reminded him very strongly of a fox, or even a cat, playful and clever but with something a bit _dangerous_ lurking beneath the surface.It intrigued him.

 

At that moment, though, her cell phone chimed and she bent over, her curtain of hair hiding her face as she ruffled in her bag for it.He busied himself with folding his paper and taking another swig of coffee.He caught her stirring out of the corner of his eye, zipping up her backpack and rising.

 

“The name’s Seren,” she told him as she flung the bag over her shoulder.“Everyone calls me Ren.”

 

“My name is Solas, if there are to be introductions.That book you were reading — chapter four is particularly menial and repetitive.The author has a terrible habit of not quite getting to his point.I suggest taking notes in the margins whenever he seems to veer dangerously close to making sense.”

 

“Thanks.I’ll keep that in mind; I’d just look up a summary and not bother reading the shit at all if it weren’t the main source of inspiration for my master’s thesis.You’ve read it, then?”

 

He rose then, tucking his paper in under his arm and savoring one last sip of coffee. 

 

“I have the rather unfortunate distinction of being the author.It is one of my _much_ earlier works.Best of luck with your thesis, _lethallan_.”

 

Her amused exhalation of _bloody bastard_ followed him as he left.


End file.
